Moody’s Investors Service increased its assessment of Wells Fargo’s jumbo-mortgage property valuation practices from above average to strong. The rating service said the improvement was due to Wells no longer having an ownership interest in one of the appraisal management companies used by the bank. “During the prior review, Wells had an equity interest in an AMC which received approximately 90 percent of the appraisal orders,” Moody’s said ... [Includes two briefs]

Ginnie Mae issuers were moderately busier in the second quarter of 2017 than during the first three months of the year, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. Issuers produced $112.71 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter, including MBS backed by FHA home-equity conversion mortgages. It was a 5.5 percent increase from the previous period and brought year-to-date issuance to $219.51 billion, down 0.7 percent from the first half of 2016. The quarterly uptick in total issuance may not sound like much, but contrasts sharply with production at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which dropped 13.1 percent from the first to the second quarter. Ginnie volume was up because it had a deeper vein of purchase-money mortgages than there was in the government-sponsored enterprise market. Purchase loans accounted for 63.4 percent of ... [Charts]

Efforts in the Senate to reform the government-sponsored enterprises appear likely to include a government guarantee for whatever replaces the current system involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “It seems to me that the consolidation is coming around the fact that we do need to have an explicit [catastrophic] guarantee,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN. “We need to acknowledge that it’s going to be there.” He made the statement last week at a hearing on housing-finance reform by the ...

The prepayment rate on vintage jumbo mortgages serviced by Wells Fargo is outpacing the industry average by a wide margin, according to an analysis by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. A lower level of loan modifications by Wells appears to be driving the trend. BAML noted that prepayment rates on jumbo mortgages in vintage non-agency mortgage-backed securities have followed a stable trend in the last three years. However, since 2013, Wells-serviced jumbo fixed-rate ...

A resolution of the charges against Ocwen Financial brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and state regulators is expected to be “protracted,” according to industry analysts. In April, the CFPB and state regulators took a number of actions against the nonbank, alleging servicing- and lending-related violations. Ocwen is appealing the findings. The legal issues prompted mixed reactions from rating services. Fitch Ratings affirmed its B- issuer-default rating for ...

Flagstar Bank recently received assessments by Fitch Ratings of the bank’s origination platform and servicing operations. The ratings could signal increased involvement in the jumbo mortgage-backed security market by Flagstar. Fitch assigned an “average” rating to Flagstar’s origination platform. “Notable strengths of Flagstar’s origination platform include its experienced senior management team and staff, robust loan sourcing strategy, and comprehensive underwriting ...

A unit of Angel Oak Companies issued its largest nonprime mortgage-backed security this week. The deal comes shortly after a significant amount of mortgages from Angel Oak were included in a separate nonprime MBS from Deephaven Mortgage. The $210.45 million Angel Oak Mortgage Trust I LLC 2017-2 received AAA ratings from DBRS and S&P Global Ratings. Angel Oak has issued three other nonprime MBS, the largest of which was a $150.35 million transaction in 2015 ...

Issuance of prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities cooled off somewhat in the second quarter of 2017 after a relatively strong showing in the previous period. Three deals totaling $1.88 billion were issued in the second quarter, a 27.6 percent drop from the first three months of the year, according to Inside Nonconforming Markets. However, activity in the first half of this year outpaced the first half of 2016, as the dollar volume of issuance was ... [Includes one data chart]

If you’re opening a new mortgage company it stands to reason that the two least likely places you’d pick for your headquarters are New York City and San Francisco.

Issuance of nonprime mortgage-backed securities skyrocketed in the second quarter, and analysts anticipate that the market is set for more growth. A total of $1.08 billion of MBS backed by newly originated nonprime mortgages was issued in the second quarter of 2017, according to Inside Nonconforming Markets. It was the strongest post-crisis quarter for the sector, which has been percolating since the second half of 2015. Issuance in the April-June cycle ... [Includes one data chart]